Capital New York Expands Media Desk

Site co-founder and co-editor Tom McGeveran shared the news this week via Twitter that the first additional media reporters have been found.

Johana Bhuiyan comes to the site via the World Policy Journal and Policy Mic. On her personal blog It’s Pronounced Booyah, she explains her unique heritage:

I’m half Filipina, half Bangladeshi with a sprinkling of other nationalities. I’m a Muslim-American with three older brothers, only one of whom shares the enigma that is my last name. My other brothers are either my half brother or recently adopted, both with different yet phonetically simple surnames.

Nicole Levy was formerly with the Newsday and the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal. She was also, while at Yale, a reporter and editor for the Yale Daily News. Here’s an excerpt from “McClure Plays McDonald’s,” her September 11, 2011 profile of (then) 69-year-old jazz musician Ron McClure:

A decade ago, the absolute worst came to pass: the Twin Towers were hit only two blocks away from the McDonald’s where McClure now stamps his timecard. The windows of the franchise were blown out, the floor coated in three inches of soot, and its 20 years of piano entertainment suspended. The restaurant would have been used as a center for triage, had there been survivors to save.

Levy and Bhuiyan will work on the media desk alongside senior writer Joe Pompeo and part-time media reporter Peter Sterne, soon under the auspices of a fully redesigned website. Congrats to both.

Update (11:00 a.m.): And there’s more media desk news this morning, from right here within Mediabistro. Our talented and hard-working TV Newser senior editor Alex Weprin is also joining the Capital New York team. We are of course sorry to see him go, but wish him all the best at his new professional home beginning October 18. Details here.

Update (5:15 p.m.): Saving arguably the biggest media defection for last, Pompeo has just confirmed via Twitter that Women’s Wear Daily editor Matthew Lynch is also coming over to the media desk, to cover magazines. McGeveran separately hints there are one or two more hires left to announce.